Chris's 19th - Roger, Chris, & Jim - August 20, 2011

After tomorrow it is officially vacation for Roger and me:

Chris has to go to school and work and Jim has a still-new job clocking in 6 or 7 days a week–and a real-no-excuses boss. Fortunately, Jim had a trip back east my see his grandparents not too long ago. <3

Chris is flying into Buffalo, N.Y. –20 miles from the Falls– on Friday morning—leaving Sunday evening. My mom’s memorial is on Sunday August 28th …with folks coming in to the Haliburton Highlands so we decided to make it more vacation-y and stay overnight at a close to everything place in Niagara Falls. Three stars that my oldest son helped me very much in finding–for cheap–check out the topographic map of how easy it is to walk to the Falls! Excitement!

Niagara Falls Ontario--topographic & map view

… then the next morning at 11 a.m.–perfect-ish for a night owl like me…pick up Chris and do something by the Falls before heading back to Maple Lake  until Labour Day… is the plan.

PHOTOS: Chris’s birthday at Fridays’ tonight- He refused the singing. (boo):

Chris 19th birthday aug20-2011-fridays-schaumburg-il-by cyn-mccrackan

- Plus:  No one* takes my picture – further proof

*only me

August 19 2011 - Son's 19th birthday Fridays with entire nuclear family!

Some Friday's decor that made me nostalgic and I was already _in_ that frame of mind! * On another note: Was I the only chick that thought Linda Ronstadt was hot like 'this'--versus her hot pants-period (later)? I thought so. She's got really soulful eyes.

Happy 19th birthday, Christopher!

After dinner we saw this film:

It was just OK…not great. A couple of the science-based plot holes really distracted me from the film. Also, they wasted Frieda Pinto (sp?) other than as eye candy.

Found photo: Summer 1985 - "jimmy & his mom' Going through recently the thousands of photographs that my mom had amassed, I came across this one, taken by my mom.

Hm, I thought, I’d not ever laid eyes on it or any of it’s companions. Of course Mom took it back in the days of film development vs. downloading and she often wouldn’t get a full 36 photos taken and developed until (as in this case) after vacation, maybe months later.

I remember this day, though. After dinner, with the sun about to begin disappearing, it was time for the little guy to get cleaned up for bedtime. Back then we had no proper shower or tub, so one would take a bar of Ivory soap and scrub up in the Lake. (Now of course, that is an explicit no-no. Not a problem as we’ve long had a shower and pretty cushy sink and vanity, thanks to my Mom and Dad).

Anyway, in this situation, it was not warm out so I got the little guy cleaned up as quickly as I could. He was extremely good–never kicked up a fuss and as you can see, was glad when it was over. This little guy, who ultimately grew up with no Dad, was the perfect kid. Bar none. Ask anyone who knew him then. A perfect child because, I think, he felt he needed to be.

…at least until his step-dad and then, little brother came along..

Maple Lake -Summer '94(?) - Jim (11) and Chris (2) w/ Roger in distant background -'Brothers.' I don't think we ever thought of these guys as 'half' anything. Just brothers. 'This was about as good as it got. And this was pretty darn good. One more 'found shot'. I have a bunch from this set as I took them but they have not yet been scanned 'cept for this one..

One more Maple Lake photo from ’85:

A chillier point in being 2 y.o., getting washed up on a not-warm evening on Maple Lake, Ontario in 1985. ( I am so glad I did not yet have big hair!)

I was a  25 y.o divorced mom. ‘Jimmy’ was born in 1983 when I was 23. I think I was a pretty good mom (grown-up Jim has said so–without prodding or bribing!)–certainly right in there, sometimes overprotective, but that’s pretty typical with one’s 1st child, never mind one with a dad 100% out of the picture. Plus, I’m ‘ya know, fierce as a mom (and if need be, rarely, other times).

Maple Lake "Back Field" 1969

Where were you in the fall of 1969? Just a couple of months past ” the summer of love”, at Maple Lake in the Haliburton Highlands pictorial evidence suggests that “everything  (was) beautiful.”

As I’ve talked about before, my mom was not the best photographer in the world (nor am I) but she often had her camera at the really and I’m so very thankful to her that she did. Again Mom, sorry I complained so much about having to stop playing for a few minutes so you could snap a shot that I now realize preserved moments that are ever-increasingly from long ago. I’m so glad that we can savour these photos in the here and now.

I am one of nine first cousins that spent our summers when growing up living on Maple Lake.  However in the mid-1960′s my father’s work compelled us to move to the eastern United States, 500 miles from our former home in Toronto. In the early years we traveled home many times a year– summertime of course, but Easter, Canadian Thanksgiving, and Christmas, too.

The photo here  is of 7 of 9  of the cousins in what was called the “back field.” What is striking to me now is just how few birch trees remain. I don’t know if they simply aged or if a blight took them or a combination or neither. I love the pretty white birches but I’ll never forget my grandfather admonishing us to never peel bark from their trunks. Funny thing is I don’t recall anyone EVER doing so that we’d need to be warned but to this day my thought process goes like this: Oh, pretty birches –>image of my grandfather –> don’t peel the bark off them!

Welcome to your weekend! (More events to be talked about here in a few hours!–plus later tonight, the weather for the weekend and week-to-come).

I’m sure you noted the name of this blog. Not much thought needed to go into naming it as it is written on behalf of the Haliburton Highlands and more specifically when an occasion arises, the Maple Lake area, which I believe is properly referred to as the Township of Dysart et al.

There’s a fantastic FREE opportunity, Young Eagle Flights for kids ages 8-17, to fly for free out of Stanhope Airport this weekend which calls to mind some of my own recollections of the airport.

My memories of Maple Lake–and one cannot separate Maple Lake from the airport if you take a quick peek on the map*–is how awesome it is when a plane takes off over the water. I’ll be in my default place–in the lake–hear the sound of the small aircraft engine, and look up to see the undercarriage of said small aircraft zipping by overhead, then watch the plane as it disappears into the distance.

*in the aerial photos it looks closer to Green Lake which it indeed may be

I’ve always loved that. However, when I was younger and my mom was around she expressed her displeasure with the noise. That left me perplexed but I’ll leave it at noting that we all have our own reactions/perceptions of things large and small. So dear mum would gently curse the plane flying just a short distance above us and I would silently cheer for the plane and think “Wow!”
My mum cannot make it up to the lake anymore but every time a plane flies out of Stanhope airport I think of her–then I think, “Cool!”

Free small airplane flights for kids age 8-17 (click on Visit Website for details)

Visit Website
Haliburton/Stanhope Airport Haliburton/Stanhope Airport road Minden
Contact: John Packer Tel: 705 754 2611
Email: airport@halhinet.on.ca

Hi Extended Family,

I hope you are enjoying your Labour Day weekend.

As it turns out, literally at the last minute I thought it best that I not return to Maple Lake, given “the situation.”

Both my husband and father who know me well, expressed concern for my physical safety. I believe they see things through the lens of love and I love them for that.

I’d hoped for an apology–that would have been all it took– but as my 17 y.o. son pointed out, such an apology would not be forthcoming. It’s kind of interesting to hear his reaction to “this.”  It’s probably best that he too did not return this Labour Day.

HEAVY EDIT

“You are what you do.”

Please, be kind to my poor husband whose nerves are rather frayed at the moment.  He’s always been good to every one of you.

Drove top down to Karwartha Dairy tonight. Lines were almost non-existent due to the weather and the civic holiday weekend ending. It was still nice enough to grab a picnic table and for me to enjoy a new-this-year flavour–Buttertart (something). Totally yummy . It’s amazing how fresh the ice cream is and how perfect the bits of crust in the ice cream were. Best prices too–here or stateside.

Came back to the cottage and decided to watch the last two episodes of the BBC show “Ashes to Ashes.”  It ended on a question mark and I’m glad that it’s been renewed for a 3rd season. Though I miss about one-quarter of the dialogue due to the 1. heavy accents and 2. 1980′s-era slang there’s still enough that is understandable to make it good for a few laughs.

Since outside pics are hard to come by here are a few of the guys lounging plus one of the 08.02.09 waxing moon.

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We are  now here on Maple Lake. Arrived early today after a 12-hour drive which was uneventful save for heavy thunderstorms after we turned north on Hwy. 400 on the second-to-last leg of the journey. We lost an hour (I know. Usually people say “gained” but in my mind an hour goes *poof* driving in the U.S. from west to east,–so it is lost)  so after leaving the Chicago area at 3 p.m. Sunday we arrived here about 4 a.m -4:30 a.m. I would have been OK driving more but maneuvering the thunderstorms combined with the under-construction roads in various places made me thrashed so I instead clung for dear life as spouse navigated the last leg of our journey–the most “twisty and turniest”–on Hwy. 118 to Carnarvon. The roads were slick and though I’m well aware that we have a sports car (hence the two trips) Mustang GT’s are not known for their performance on slick, curving roads.

After a few hours spouse got up (he says by mistaking the time for 11:30 instead of 9 a.m. He was looking at an un-programmed clock. He had a nap later) and out but I tried to sleep. The day as predicted, was cool and rainy. By early evening though, the lake calmed down and it looked like we could’ve had a beautiful day (only it wasn’t). Tomorrow sounds like a repeat of today only in inverse with the a.m. nice and showers and thunderstorms throughout the afternoon and evening. Spouse must retrieve both our son and our dog and then we’ll all be together for the  better part of 3 weeks. It’ll be the split trip going home again with me staying behind  to go on the second trip back, so I’ll probably end up with  close to four weeks here. I’m not complaining. Here are photos of our Maple Lake View from this evening. Trying settings on new camera. Pretty sure they are not “right” yet. It’s a 12X tele wide angle many pixeled model, priced more than my last point and shoot but less than my now-antique SLR. It’s all lens and screen–very small housing–which I like. Hope to get to know it well in the next month (and beyond).

One last thing: There are bats as in “bats” in a closed-off stove pipe (they passed an anti-fire law and we had to remove an antique wood burning stove) that is open-ended outside. and begins in the very centre of the cooking area in the kitchen. They are really loud and not-pleasant-sounding. Probably feel the same about me. Ha!

Above: Maple Lake – July 2008

Since I run through the weekly weather cast for cottage country, specifically the Maple Lake area/Haliburton Highlands, I’ve been acutely aware of the cooler and wetter-than-normal summer that the area has been experiencing.

It’s been my experience that if you get a cooler than normal summer without a lot of rain, it’s fairly easy to adjust to by wearing a bit more clothing. There’s still enough sunny days and people find a way to enjoy themselves. Conversely, if you have a summer with normal temperatures but more rain than usual you can adapt to that as well. Going out in warm summer rain is wholly different than a chilly rainy summer day. And that’s what’s been far too often the case for the Maple Lake area/Haliburton Highlands thus far for the summer of 2009.

Now comes the Weather Channel with their best guess about what is to come for the remainder of the summer:

From the Weather Channel’s Chris St. Clair.

A few facts: Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg have been 2 to 4 degrees below average almost day in, day out since the season began. Halifax nearly doubled its average June rainfall. Days with more cloud cover than sun were common nearly all across Canada….

The rest of the summer, August at least, will be very close to average for nearly all of the country. The temperature should be where it ought to be but it is likely that cloudier and rainier days might prevail in the east…
… the weather pattern over North America and the weather we’ve had during the first part of our summer has a lot to do with something called the North Atlantic Oscillation, a pattern uncovered in the 1920’s by Sir Gilbert Walker.

The North Atlantic Oscillation is a variance in the location of a large area of strong and stable high pressure. For the past many weeks it has developed over Greenland and the Labrador Sea.
The emergence of the North Atlantic Oscillation has lead to a block in the usual, steady west to east migration of unsettled low pressure across our continent.

Simply, the cool rainy weather is stopped once it gets to the Great Lakes Basin because it cannot get past the big, stable high pressure over the western Atlantic. Not until the high pressure, that has manifested itself further east, relaxes will there be a change in the pattern.

While science continues to study the underlying reasons for the temperament and frequency of the oscillation, we can report that it is easing and more typical summer weather is returning to eastern Canada.

So, the upshot is that it may warm up some but in the eastern Canada, which is where Maple Lake, Ontario is, there will still be above-average rainfall.

This truly sounds like a repeat from the summer of 2008. I know my relatives were very unhappy about it. They have a somewhat different relationship with “going to the Lake” than I do (and I would gladly swap places with them). They are weekenders as well as vactioners as they are easy driving distance to the Lake from their permanent residences.

For me and my little family Maple Lake is a 700 mile drive so with the exception of Labour Day weekend, once we get to the Lake we stay as long as we can. I suppose in some ways, that makes us lucky though as we get a bigger picture-view of being at the Lake. The weekend for example may in a word “suck” weather-wise but come Monday or Tuesday it may be lovely for a few days and then as the next weekend rolls around it make get sucky yet again. Since we are there for the mid-week clearing up and temperature rise we still see good weather and as it worked for me last year a few days of good weather each week turned into a total of about a week of really good weather and while not overjoyed with how that worked out I was still awfully happy to be at the Lake. That is how I’ve benefited from not having the Lake at my disposal for most of my life. It means more to me because it is such a big deal to get there. It takes great planning and time off of work, neither of which is neccesary for someone who lives within a couple hours of the Lake. I’m not saying weekenders do not appreciate Valhalla while they are there but that I may appreciate it just a bit more than they.

Laguna Beach, CA - April 2009

Sometimes life just does not cooperate the way one would like it to. Basically my heart failure led us as a family from being comfortably middle class income to with one full time and 2 part time jobs clinging to the thin line between lower mid and middle middle class. That the car that was to carry most of our “stuff” for a 3-week stay at Maple Lake cannot be trusted to endure the rigors of the road trip is just one more thing. I’m not terribly upset about it when, on the balance we are darn lucky to have a cottage to go to, that my spouse’s company, despite cutting back in so many other ways (promotions, bonuses, co-pay on medical getting crazy high) he still gets a goodly amount of paid time off. It’s just really annoying and frustrating and inconvenient but none of that carries the gravity of ill health or losing a job or a home or the dog dying, for that matter. And all those things are not happening to us . (To clarify: I am stable though considered disabled from heart disease–I feel good! )

We are grappling with none of those, just that we are going to have to make 2 trips up to the Lake and two trips home because our good car is a Mustang GT in which we cannot cram everyone and all our stuff. We pulled it off before but our now almost-17 y.o. son is 6’3″ and cannot fold himself into what is only a token gesture of a back seat.

Renting a car came to mind. The cost of doing so has skyrocketed. And doing so one way, say to Buffalo or Niagara Falls to do a swap, zipping back and forth the few hours from the Lake is a no-go because the rental cars peeps do not want to play ball with us (“no cars available”).

So I’m trying to put on a happy face now that this trip is turning into what hopefully won’t be a logistical nightmare.
The upside is, by the time we get everyone to the Lake it appears as if the crap weather will cease at least for a bit. Wish I had a crystal ball. Been wishing for one of those for as long as I can remember.